Best 42in LCD TV for Gaming

So I have a 24in HP w2408h and it works great with my laptop, but I want to go bigger. I've been really getting into media center, but when I invite friends over watching dvd's on my 24 isn't really that awesome, and since I want to get a bluray drive I really need something that just blows people away. So these are my req's if you will.

1) Price: Needs to be less then $1000 dollars

2) Size: Can be 42' to 46' but no bigger or smaller

3) Quality: Must be good quality for blu ray, gaming, and normal computer use since it will be a computer monitor most of the time. It must be 120hz or higher since 60 is not where I want to be anymore. Also 1920x1200 resolution

So thats about it. Any suggestions anyone might have tested or use would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

I would recommend a samsung, sony, toshiba, sharp, philips. Also full HD 1080p and if you can since your going to game try the new 240hz i guess you can see the motion better.

 

*New 120hz I think is what you meant. Have not seen any 240hz models.

As for what brand.

Samsung & Sharp are the two that seem to have consistent quality throughout there product line, and prices have come to sane levels.

I saw a Sharp Aquios 42" 120hz model at Sams Club for like $1200 and I was like as that is a VERY nice panel and a killer price all in one.

I personaly have a 37" Westinghouse 37LVM-W3 and have been incredibly happy with my purchase since the day I got it. I can very easily say it was the best PC purchase I ever made.

No matter how strong or nice your computer is none of it matters if you have a crappy display to enjoy it on, its the only device responable for letting you view and enjoy all that processing power.

When I bought the 37" screen and connected it to my old P4 system it felt like a bigger upgrade than it was when I replaced that P4 system with a high end dual gpu quad core cpu monster machine.

That said not too long ago somebody posted the 37LVMW3-SE the same model as mine but "Special Edition" (just a newer version of it) for like $550 shipped. Westinghouse uses the same tech & panels as the more expensive TV's and its made for PC use as they actually call it a "HD Monitor" not a "HD TV" as it has no TV tuner inside to lower the cost.

It gets a very high recommendation from me, its price cant be beat and its not some cheap POS like you find in Walmart.

 

Yea, it doesn't need a tv tuner inside since I have an external one. What I am really looking for is something that I will have a great time viewing media on and gaming. I want to connect the disply to my computer via HDMI and not have it set to some crappy 1600x900 resolution, I want full HD baby.

EDIT

I hear some TV's havr input lag? or so my father tells me I always take his "tech" advice with a grain of salt but it might have some truth to it, so is there any? And if so What models don't contain it, and what types of tv do?

 

Yeah mine is full 1920x1080 and games/movies have never been better, it really puts you in the game since it takes up almost all your vision.

Here is the review of it here that i did long ago.

I'll go google and see if I cant see if the new version of it is still on sale, you wont find a better deal for a monitor this size, and its great for all my consoles too as it has a ton of inputs.

Edit: yep Here you go it will cost you less than $500 after shipping, I guarantee you wont find a better screen or deal for that price period. Plus you have my review to look at to know about the panel. Its out of stock currently so you will have to keep an eye out for stock to come in.

I plan to one day get 3x20" monitors and go ultra wide for my main computer setup and supplement my big 37" screen with a nice HD projector so for games that do not support 3x screens I can use a single huge HD projector screen and for my movies use the projector.

 

hmmm, Id like to get a LCD that doesn't have to be shipped so far away and on my own bill, if it goes for broke.

 

Dunno what you mean?

But for less than $500 thats basically half the price of competitors, so you can in theory buy another one lol.

 

the most important factor that u should consider for a tv that will be used for gaming/fast paced movies/sports is response time.

u will need somethin with less than 4-5 milliseconds of response time for a fluid and non-pixelated image.

if it is gonna be used as a computer monitor-type setup then the westinghouse wouldn't be a bad choice. if u only have a budget of $1000 and want to stick to somethin truly reliable, i would definitely stick with a samsung LCD. samsung has the best performance:cost panels in my opinion. the TV market is saturated and very competitive. there is no need to rush cuz TV prices are very affordable now a days. take yur time and find somethin that will truly fit yur bill so that u don't need to upgrade (and waste more money) sooner than u have to or want to. remember to look for "burn-in retention" as one of the features in whatever TV u go for.

 

4-5ms is going to be one of two things.

a TN panel witch are cheap and look like crap and have bad view angles

or a IPS panel or similar that did not have proper response time readings as there is no standard way to measure it, one company may may say 8ms and the next company say 4ms for the exact same panel.

From my own testing though the Westy has no ghosting or input lag.

Samsungs are good but also the #1 unit that I read problems about, there enhanced contrast option has caused many pc users some problems for some reason, also there was people having overscan issues, when you use it as a pc monitor you want the moniitor to map 1:1 but many of the samsungs were overscaning making people lose part of there screen.

Summary: great TV, not so great computer monitor.

Im sure most of this has been resolved/fixed , but atleast do your research before buying one.

 

yea thats one of the problems with goin with a real TV, when connectin to a laptop. most laptops, apart from new 16:9 ones, will have all sorts of different 16:10 native resolutions.

16:9 tv's just scan 16:10 laptops weird sometimes. if i was to build a computer system around a LCD tv, i would definitely stick with a desktop. samsung sells a boat load of TV's. u know how it is viscous...nobody really talks about how good or how much they love their stuff, but they'll write a novel when it comes to problems. u make great points that the OP should take into consideration tho.

 

Speaking of TV's lol my parents just had there old projection TV break so he ran to Walmart and got a new 46" Sony Brava for $1250ish, not too bad a deal I guess for that size, but I could have gotten it online for $1000 shipped had they been patient enough to wait for my help.

 

Look at Samsung TV's.

I just got a Series 5 (530) and it is great!

It supports 1920x1080 w/1080p. Has Three HDMI Ports. And looks excellent compared to almost all the others at the store. The colors are very very nice. Very Crsp, Clear, and Vibrant. No Blurring.